Some New Zealanders made a feast of parity with the aussie. Photo: Reuters

It's been a generation since anyone's seen anything like parity between the two currencies. The last occasion was October 18, 1973: Gough Whitlam was running Australia, OPEC had just raised oil prices by 70 per cent and the world changed forever.

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At Christmas, many New Zealanders sat down for the first time at tables laden with Australian lamb.

With Kiwi lamb fetching almost double the supermarket price of their Australian cousins, the changes to the trans-Tasman currency drove consumers offshore in search of cheaper Christmas dinners.

Admittedly, the price of lamb has been also affected by a shortage of New Zealand animals and a drought-induced glut of Australians, but it is not all one-way traffic.

Some are saying that if the currencies continue to creep closer to one another, Australian primary exporters are sure to be big winners.

"It's good news clearly for a number of sectors here in Australia. Fewer tourists going to New Zealand means more support for domestic tourism, and may also provide some support for retailers if people are staying here rather than going overseas," Commsec chief economist Craig James told Fairfax."It will also provide competitive support for wine, dairying, sheep, meats basically and also the wool industry."

It's good news clearly for a number of sectors here in Australia

Craig James

Some New Zealanders have already leaped on board the opportunities offered by approaching parity.

On Wednesday a New Zealand consortium snapped up Australia's fourth largest retirement village operator for $640 million.

Infrastructure group Infratil and sovereign wealth fund NZ Super Fund purchased RetireAustralia's 28 villages across NSW, South Australia and Queensland and more than 3700 independent living units and apartments.

Had it bought in November, the consortium would have had to shell out an extra $60 million.

New Zealand's sudden arrival at equal monetary status may be something of a shock to Australians who have long regarded the island nations with not much regard.

For a start, there were all those jokes: sheep was once Australian shorthand for New Zealand, but the former Land of the Long White Sheep has long embraced its inner cow.

Currency traders are betting that New Zealand's dairy-dominated economy is better placed to weather the latest global commodity downturn than Australia's resource-based economy.

Only a currency trader would think cheese was more valuable than coal.